Getting talent back in Dublin. Is the job market for young Basques changing?

This weekend, Bizkaia Talent held a “Be Basque Talent Meeting” in Dublin. Our regular readers will recognize this organization’s name, as we’ve spoken about it on several occasions in the last few months. Honestly, we’re quite impressed by them. We don’t know of many Basque organizations that have gotten talked about on the BBC twice in as many months, with specific proposals to encourage the innovation that Basque institutions are getting going.

As we were saying, this Friday, they organized a Be Basque Talent Meeting in Dublin, and in attendance were thirty highly-qualified Basque professionals who are developing their careers in the Dublin metro area. The goal of these meetings is to let our expats know about work they can find back home.

These meetings are just the tip of the iceberg. Bizkaia Talent has created a website called the Be Basque Talent Network, where Basque workers and companies can find and get to know each other. It’s a tool that’s getting results.

It’s clear that if Basque companies want these young workers, which we as a society have helped prepare but whose dividends are being paid off abroad, we need to offer them more than just the possibility to come home. If our industry wants to be competitive and attract the best talent, its only option is to begin treating our young workers as European or foreign companies do: with the respect and dignity they deserve.

What’s more, if we bear in mind the productive structure in the Basque Country, it’s getting more and more specialized, and we’re entering unknown territory: we’re running into a lack of available professionals.

Universities and Professional Training that are more adapted to the real needs in our country, alongside a salary and workers’ rights structure that is more “European” from the companies, would be the solution.

And it’s their responsibility. Because, let’s not forget, society is already doing its part. We are one of the European regions with the highest level of university graduates. And, given what we’ve seen, institutions are taking care of connecting professionals and companies easily and efficiently.

We hope all young Basques again have the opportunity to work in our country. Going out into the world is great, because we are a society that is open to the world and we need professionals who are used to it. But being able to come home to good economic and working conditions is even better, and much more important, because, among other reasons, if our “talent” leaves us, we lose our only source of wealth, our only raw material: people and knowledge.

Bizkaia Talent – 9/6/2017 – Euskadi

Bizkaia Talent connects the talent of highly-qualified Basque professionals residing in the area of Dublin

The association to attract, retain and link talent to Bizkaia – Basque Country, promoted by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, keeps forging closer ties with the talent of Basque professionals, irrespective of their current place of residence.